Modern avionics display systems have been extensively engineered to visually convey a considerable amount of information. The displayed information is sourced from various databases, sensors, transponders and broadcasts. The information is organized in “information layers” (e.g., flight path information, Navigational Aids (NAVAID), airspace information, terrain information, weather information, traffic information, and the like). The various information layers are combined to provide a unified graphical display on the avionics display system.
Generally, traffic is an information layer displayed concurrently with various other information layers on avionics displays. The traffic information includes graphical traffic symbols depicting position and orientation of the traffic each having a data tag to provide enhanced traffic information. Enhanced traffic information includes Flight Identification, Closure Rate, Aircraft Type, and the like.
Avionics display systems generally utilize Cockpit Display of Traffic Information (CDTI) to monitor traffic information. CDTI obtains traffic information from multiple sources, such as Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast (ADS-B), Traffic Information Service Broadcast (TIS-B), and TCAS (Traffic Collision Avoidance System). Advances in aircraft surveillance have increased the amount of traffic information provided by these sources, for example, ADS-B provides traffic position and velocity data even from very distant traffic. This large amount of traffic information can create clutter on the display.
A pilot controls what is viewed on a navigation display (ND) by entering a range setting into a range selector. The range setting is applied to all information layers displayed on the navigation display. Contextually, a pilot may need to select a higher range setting to view the weather information, or a complete leg of a flight path. At these higher range settings, a large amount of undesired additional traffic is displayed, cluttering the display. The pilot may want to select a much lower range setting to view only traffic that is local to the host aircraft; however, while a lower range setting excludes the unwanted additional traffic information, it equally excludes information that the pilot may need that is sourced from other information layers (e.g., weather, terrain, flight path, NAVAIDS).
Thus, there is a need to enhance an avionics display by permitting a pilot to utilize the range selector on the navigation display and independently control a sub-range of information displayed from a selected information layer (e.g. the traffic layer), while not affecting the display of the other information layers. This enhanced avionics display should accept various parameters (e.g. sub-range, time, etc.). This dual range approach de-clutters the image on a cockpit display with respect to the selected information layer, thus increasing a pilot's situational awareness.